Good choice for speaker; glad she was tagged to inspire audience. The committee did a service to the community by choosing Bialik. Would have been interesting to gauge listeners as they exited; what did the EEs think about the keynote?

bobzz, I did not read in the article that science/engineering careers are too demanding (or pay enough) to support a family. Instead I read that Bialik choose to be at home to raise her children, this is in of itself also a courageous thing given the cultures view of careers vs stay at home moms.

@resistion- I hear what you are saying. I thought about that a couple of times during her talk- it's kind of ironic that someone who makes a living as a TV star--the very thing that many people say we as a society glamorize way too much at the expense of honorable professions such as engineering--would be passionate about the virtues of STEM education. Let's agree on this--we would all like to make a living working on a sitcom. Here's a person who did that, still got a PhD, then decided to go back to acting because she could. Now that she has visibility, she's using it to push an agenda that says STEM education is a viable choice for many, many young people, including women. I respect that.

"Ultimately, though, she chose to go back into acting to allow her to spend more time with her sons, a decision she called intensely personal."
So a science or engineering career is too demanding and/or does not pay enough to support a family. And for this we need more STEM education, maybe we need less.